ALTADENA – Fresh off the plane from his New York appearance on “Good Morning America,” Paco, the crime-fighting Chihuahua, resumed his post Tuesday at Altadena’s Ace Smoke shop.

Like a tableau from a Disney movie, the fleshy Chihuahua trotted up and down the block outside the store, tail wagging, as he greeted familiar faces.

A man crossed the street, yelling “Paco!” as if at an old friend. Another man approached the dog, saying “That’s a fightin’ dog!” A woman brought a young boy into the store to see the “hero dog.”

Paco earned his title when he chased two armed, masked robbers from the smoke shop on July 7 – but shot to fame when the surveillance video went viral following his network television debut Monday.

The video shows a relentless Paco jumping and nipping at the thieves before chasing them into the street.

At one point, the man holding the gun appears rattled enough to lose his focus and the other pushes him back toward the counter.

Alfred, a 48-year-old attendant at the smoke shop who declined to give his last name, said he was playing on his laptop the evening of the robbery when two men suddenly burst in and put a gun in his face.

“I had to crouch down like this, because I was scared,” Alfred said, hovering eye-level with the counter.

He said he believes the thieves were customers because they didn’t ask him to open the cash register.

“I think they knew where I put my money,” he said. He handed over $200. “I think the dog caused them to run – he saved my life.”

Paco belongs to a neighbor, but Alfred keeps a bed for him behind the counter.

“The dog is normally here because I feed it and he likes me. He’s here morning and night, close to me.”

At the Rancho Bar next door, several regulars beat the afternoon heat Tuesday with cold beers.

“We hang out with that dog every day,” said bartender Ian Wilkins, 37. “He goes up and down the block and stops here…Everyone knows who Paco is, even before all this.”

Wilkins said the bravery came as a surprise, but the Paco legend was in the making.

“We didn’t really think he had any (guts),” Wilkins said. “He’s just a shaky little Chihuahua.”

Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to call Detective Brett Binder at the sheriff’s Altadena substation at 626-296-2114 or 626-798-1131. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call “Crime Stoppers” at 800-222-8477 or text the letters TIPLA plus the tip to CRIMES (274637) or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

The sheriff’s department could not immediately say Tuesday whether there had been any arrests in the case.